Over 25 years ago, Alan Cohen formed his own independent label, ACM Records. Working together with his wife and partner, Eve Adams, it has since become a staple in the industry, featuring some of the world's best Indie Artists with music in almost all genres.
In December, 2009, Mr. Cohen spoke with IAR students about what it takes to start and maintain an independent label in a digital age. In an interactive forum, Alan engaged his audience by asking what they knew about independent labels. He stated that unlike many years ago, artists are now either releasing their own records or starting their own labels. He continued by providing a brief history of record labels, focusing on the four major music groups: Sony, Warner Music Group (WMG), Universal, and EMI. These groups are the main distributors for many major and Indie labels. Mr. Cohen discussed what a label seeks to accomplish to deliver a successful product, touching on publishing, trademarks, and 360 Deals. Since labels are not making as much money just selling records, CDs or downloads, they developed what is called a “360 Deal”. that, Alan explained, is a new arrangement where the label gets a percent of everything the artist does, i.e. publishing, clothing line, perfume, acting. There are some Pros and Cons for the artist. Pros: with the right backing from the label, more opportunities can be developed that the artist would not normally be exposed to. Cons: the label has too much interest in the artist, and the artist is locked into the label on everything he does. “Currently at WMG, approximately 50% of their artists are signed to 360 Deals”, Alan added He went on to go into detail about label structure, involving functional areas such as A&R, Marketing, Promotion, Website design, and several others, and stressing the importance of staying active in public forums such as MySpace and Facebook. “You must stay current with the music trends and be versatile and flexible to stay in business. You must be able to adapt and change your business structure every 6 months to a year as the industry changes.” Alan emphasized that by eliminating the enormous marketing and manufacturing costs that traditional major labels faced, the digital age allows anyone to start his or her own label. His advice: “Spend as little as possible to get the most you can. Money makes money but overspending can put you out of business very fast.”
Mr. Cohen’s prominent position in the music industry is a major achievement in a business dominated by the major labels. At times, he received little or no credit for the music he wrote for others, hoping it would benefit him someday. As he stated, “Sometimes you’ve got to give up something to get somewhere.” Alan’s efforts have indeed paid off over time, as he has managed to build his label working with some of the top names in the industry: CBS/Paramount, Miramax, Roc-A-Fella, MTV, E! Entertainment, the NBA, NFL, Verizon, and many others. Alan still enjoys his first love, music, and has played guitar for over 2 dozen Broadway shows and Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame’s Bo Diddley, to name a few. His motto is “Don’t forget why you got into music in the first place”.
IAR launches School Scholarships and Extended Payment Plans:
Find out NOW if you qualify for either of these new programs!
IAR has now launched an annual scholarship program for present and future students, ranging from $250 up to $7,000. Also, qualified applicants can arrange payment plans that will extend beyond graduation date.
Scholarships are need-based and are awarded on a number of criteria. For full details on the requirements of this program, future students should contact their admissions officer and present students can stop in student services. Applications can be submitted immediately.
Important aspects of IAR’s Scholarship Program are:
• Partial scholarships available, ranging from $250 up to $7,000
• No credit rating or lengthy application process
• There is no application fee
• Scholarships are need-based with certain requirements for eligibility
• An essay is required
• This is an annual scholarship pool
• Recipients must meet academic progress standards while attending IAR
• Application deadlines apply for each future starting class
Interested in a Scholarship? Future students: contact your Admissions Officer. Present Students: see student services.
Over the past year, the Institute of Audio Research and IK Multimedia have partnered together to bring students and guests a series of seminars. IK is an industry leader in music software, with reasonably priced products. The educational seminars at IAR have introduced some of these products, such as the AmpliTube Fender, T-RackS, SampleTank 2, and the StealthPedal.
On September 16th, IAR and IK hosted a T-RackS Master Class with Production from SampleTank, the fourth of the series.
T-Racks is a modular mastering and mixing application; SampleTank2 is a professional, sample bank with over 2,000 sounds licensees can use.
IK Product Specialist Tony Grund demonstrated to students that the T-RackS 3 Deluxe would be a valuable addition to any DAW for mixing and mastering. Tony introduced the T-RackS 3 Deluxe suite, comprised of 9 total processors, 5 new effects (including the vintage tube 670 Compressor/Limiter based on the famous Fairchild 670), and 4 classic award-winning T-RackS processors. Tony showed the efficiency of the T-RackS suite and how its new configurable mixing chain allows for minimal CPU power. He suggested that the students start with the effects presets and tweak them to achieve the sound they want. He demonstrated the full production of a song from scratch with SampleTank 2 XL and the T-RackS 3 suite. Tony illustrated the full control of the synth engine with the new editable knobs. He stated, “What’s cool about SampleTank is that it works in different DAWs like Live, ProTools, Logic, etc.”
The seminar was concluded with a round of questions and answers. All the students and guests were given a free demo of T-RackS 3 and additional discounts for the full and crossgrade versions of the software demonstrated.
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